Wednesday, April 7, 2010

SCUBA

I arrived in Koh Tao yesterday and got to the hotel where I wanted to stay only to find that there was no record of my confirmation. It's kind of a long, uninteresting story, but the bottom line is that I'm staying at AC Resort, a hotel associated with the dive club that I'm using, Phoenix Divers. I'm sharing a room with Brendan, a guy I only just met here in Koh Tao. We're in the same dive class so we have an air-con room for free for four nights (and free breakfast, too).

Dive class started pretty much right away, yesterday at 4pm. First we had to do paperwork and a medical history and such before we moved on to covering scuba diving basics. I started to feel not so nervous, probably because I was getting an understanding of how things work, what to do, and when to do it. We even had homework to do! ;-) And then guess who I ran into? None other than Rhian and Marina! Tuesday night was their last night and my first night in Koh Tao, so James (a guy in my dive class) and I had dinner with them and spent the night hanging out for awhile before James and I scooted out to do homework.

Today we spent more time in the classroom, but we knew that the afternoon would find us geared up and in the water. I still wasn't particularly nervous, I just knew that I was going to have to focus on my breathing and keeping it steady and normal. And, well, let's say I'm still alive to talk about it, but I was definitely the slow kid in my class, lol. For this first session in the water, we were only practicing skills such as finding a lost regulator (the thing that you breathe through), sharing air with your buddy, hand signals, that kind of thing. Basically, all those things that you need to know how to do in order to have a successful dive.

The internet cafe is about to close, so I'll go ahead and hit "publish post" before they kick me out, and I'll try to give me info tomorrow. Btw, the crystal clear water and sunsets are absolutely as amazing as the pictures would make them seem!